Thomas de Cantilupe, A.D. 1275-1282. Born A.D. 1220, he showed, as a child, unusual religious zeal, was educated at Oxford and Paris, and for some years filled the office of Chancellor of England at the choice of the barons. This post he lost on the death of Simon de Montfort. When he was elected by the Chapter of Hereford to fill the episcopal chair on De Breton's death he was only persuaded to accept it with difficulty.
Bishop Cantilupe was renowned for his extreme piety and devotional habits. In a dispute concerning the chace of Colwall, near Malvern Forest, from which was derived the Bishop's supply of game, he maintained successfully the episcopal rights. He was also triumphant in a more important quarrel with the Welsh King Llewellyn about the wrongful appropriation of three manors.
When Lord Clifford was in trouble for plundering his cattle and maltreating his tenants, Bishop Cantilupe inflicted personal chastisement upon him with a rod in the cathedral. The clergy no less than laymen did he subdue, appealing when necessary to the Pope.
In a quarrel arising out of a matrimonial case, in which the defendant appealed to Canterbury against a sentence of the sub-dean of Hereford, he was at last excommunicated by the Archbishop for refusing to go to discuss the affair with him at Lambeth. At Rome he obtained a favourable decree, but died in Tuscany on the homeward journey.
As already described, his remains were finally laid with great pomp in the Lady Chapel.
Five years later the bones of Bishop Cantilupe were moved to the Chapel of St. Katherine, in the north-west transept. Twice more were they moved, finally resting in the same Chapel of St. Katherine.
Richard Swinfield, A.D. 1283-1316, the next Bishop, had been Bishop Cantilupe's devoted chaplain. He kept wisely aloof from politics, but offered a keen resistance to any infringement on the rights of his diocese. Several boundary questions were settled by Bishop Swinfield, and in 1289-90 he made a tour through his diocese, of which has come down to us a journal of daily expenses.
Bishop Swinfield was the probable builder of the nave-aisles and two easternmost transepts. In his time the "Mappa Mundi" came into possession of the Chapter.
He worked hard to obtain the Canonisation of his illustrious predecessor, but it was not till four years after his death that Pope John XXII. granted an act for the purpose. He was buried in the cathedral.
Adam Orleton, A.D. 1316-1327, was a friend of Roger Mortimer, and consequently was opposed to Edward II. Throughout the struggle of those many miserable years the affairs of the diocese were dragged in the mire of civil war. It was the Bishop of Hereford who, at Neath Abbey, took the King, carried him to Kenilworth, and deprived him of the Great Seal. The Queen was staying at Hereford, and thither many of the King's adherents were taken with the Chancellor and Hugh Despenser. The last-named was hanged in the town, decapitated, and quartered.